1/27/99

Contacts:
Brent Danielson, Animal Ecology, (515) 294-5248
Megan Kuhn, Agriculture Information, (515) 294-2957

DEER-RELATED ACCIDENTS STUDIED BY ISU RESEARCHER

AMES, Iowa -- More than 13,500 accidents involving deer and vehicles were recorded in Iowa during 1997, causing more than $27 million of property damage. An Iowa State University researcher is working to make roadsides safer for Iowa drivers and the state's deer population.

With funding from the Iowa Department of Transportation, Brent Danielson, associate professor of animal ecology, investigated places where deer are getting hit and the land-use patterns connected with those places.

A database, collected by the DOT and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, allowed Danielson and Mike Hubbard, a postdoctoral collaborator, to map the locations of more than 32,000 deer-related accidents that occurred from 1990 to 1997. The accident maps were then combined with maps of land-use throughout Iowa from the Iowa Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at ISU.

"We found that about 25 percent of deer-related accidents occur at only 3 percent of Iowa mileposts," Danielson said.

Most of these areas are near bridges or overpasses. Deer may be following linear features in the landscape, like railroad tracks, streams or ditches. Where these landscape features intersect with highways, accidents increase.

Surprisingly, the amount of traffic on a road is not a very useful indicator of accidents, but the number of lanes is, according to Danielson. "We assume the longer it takes the deer to get across, the more likely it is for them to be hit," he said.

Danielson also looked at the effectiveness of methods used to prevent deer-related accidents. He said two of the most effective measures &emdash; deer-proof fencing and underpass corridors &emdash; are very expensive. Less expensive remedies, such as deer whistles, deer-crossing signs or specialized roadside reflectors, are either ineffective or poorly tested, he said.

The final part of Danielson's research was to design a study using the most promising preventive methods. The study focused on the 3 percent of Iowa mileposts where most deer-related accidents occur.

Along these stretches of roadway, Danielson suggests erecting low-cost, "deer-resistant" fencing with narrow openings for deer to pass through. These openings would be monitored with motion-detectors linked to warning signals that would flash to warn motorists when deer are present.

"Drivers might pay more attention to flashing signs," said Danielson. "We feel this could have a dramatic effect."

Danielson said experiments to test this idea or other technology are critical to reducing deer-related accidents at a time when deer populations are increasing rapidly.

"Accidents involving deer are a problem nationwide," said Danielson. "We could make Iowa the test bed for a solution."

A paper on Danielson's research will be published this summer in The Journal of Wildlife Biology. More information can be found on the Internet at: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~mhubbard/deer/.

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